L0078 - LITERARY CRITICISM AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

Considering the educational objectives of the course, the course aims to offer the students a framework of the interdisciplinary development of both literary criticism and comparative literatures, providing, at the same time, an introduction to literary comparative studies which will be useful both to frame the discipline historically and to illustrate the main areas of investigation, in particular those related to literary genres. Concerning professional profiles and employment opportunities expected in the field of literary criticism and comparative literatures, as well as the theoretical and practical aspects of the analysis and comparison of literary texts - coming from different linguistic areas and literary traditions - will be addressed not only to decode the different content levels but also to evaluate their function in current literary, communicative and cultural dynamics. EXPECTED LEARNING RESULTS - KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING ABILITY: it is essential 1) to get knowledge of the main aspects and problems of literary criticism and of the methods of comparative literature; 2) to gain, as well, knowledge of the various literary and cultural traditions in a supranational perspective ;to acquire ability to understand analytically the various texts presented in the course. - ABILITY TO PRACTICE KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING: is necessary 1) to be able to carry out textual analysis of narrative texts;2) to identify the main themes and characteristics of the detective genre and their development in relation to different canonical authors and to historical-cultural changed contexts, from the end of the nineteenth century to the contemporary narrative. - JUDGMENT AUTONOMY must be developed 1) to gain awareness of literary and cultural problems; 2)to increase a personal autonomy of judgment in reading literary texts as an open form, in a multicultural and interdisciplinary perspective. - COMMUNICATION SKILLS are necessary (1) to express, with the vocabulary proper of comparative discipline, the main approaches of literary criticism; (2) to explain the relationship between the works and their reference context, thanks also to an adequate knowledge of the transnational historical-cultural scenario; (3) to describe forms and ways of narrative communication.